


Two Sides of the Same Ghost

by StarStrom21



Category: Ghost - Mystery Skulls (Music Video), Mystery Skulls (Band)
Genre: Multi, None actually shown, just the injuries, mentions of abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-21
Updated: 2015-08-21
Packaged: 2018-04-16 11:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4623282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarStrom21/pseuds/StarStrom21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lewis has been doing so many nice things for Arthur after he rejoined the team, but he knows it's all just an act. Those injuries could only be inflicted by someone who hated him, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Sides of the Same Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> So I once had an idea about Lewis trying to let go of his anger towards Arthur after rejoining the the team but instead it kinda turned into a split personality without anyone knowing. The angry personality only came out when he was alone with Arthur though, so Arthur would think the nice personality was just an act and think Lewis still hated him.

Arthur looked down at the bacon and eggs Lewis had placed in front of him almost an hour ago. Ever since he’d rejoined the Mystery Skulls Lewis had been going out of his way to do nice things for him, but Arthur knew the truth. As much as he wanted it to be true he knew it was all just an act, Vivi would have never forgiven him if she knew what he did to Arthur whenever they were alone.

He reached for his fork and bit back a wince as his latest bruises were aggravated. He had to keep his injuries a secret, had to keep up the act. If he didn’t Vivi would know and she’d push Lewis away. He couldn’t let that happen, he’d already been responsible for loosing Lewis once he couldn’t do it again. Besides what he went threw was the least of what he deserved.

It was then he heard footsteps heading for the kitchen and the sound of two voices coming closer. Oh no, if Vivi saw he didn’t eat his breakfast she’d question what was wrong and then Lewis would be mad that she was worried over him. So even though his stomach felt like led he swallowed down his cold breakfast as fast as he could. To give an excuse to why he was still in the kitchen he picked up his dishes and started to wash them in the sink.

“Oh there you are,” Vivi’s voice sounded from behind him.

Arthur did his best to force a smile and turned to her. “Hey Viv, what’s up?” he asked, tensing a bit at seeing Lewis behind her.

“Well there was something we wanted to ask you,” Vivi answered and Arthur noticed her cheeks turning a shade red. What did they want to ask that could make even Vivi blush.

“Uh yes, um well...” Lewis spoke up and Arthur snapped to attention, “The thing is we uh...”

“We wanted to know if you’d be our boyfriend,” Vivi interrupted.

“Uh yeah that,” Lewis added, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

“Look we both actually had crushes on you for a long time, like before the cave,” Vivi explained.

“We wanted to give you some time to recover from... well everything before we said anything,” Lewis continued.

“So what do you say?” Vivi asked, both of them looking to Arthur hopefully.

Arthur stood frozen. This couldn’t be real, as much as he wished it was. Lewis hated him, he made that clear with every bruise and burn he gave to him. There was no way Lewis would want to date him. No he knew why. One look at Vivi and he knew it was all to make her happy. Lewis was only agreeing to this for her. He didn’t even need to look at Lewis to know he must have been looking at him with a threat of horrible pain if he didn’t say yes. Lewis would probably make his life an even worse living hell then it was now once he did so.

“I...I...” he couldn’t say it, not when he knew it would be a lie. Tears blurred his vision and he momentarily locked eyes with Lewis. Glowing pink irises felt like they were burning into his skull but he still couldn’t get his voice to work.

Not knowing what to do he bolted out of the kitchen in a blind panic. He didn’t stop until he made it too his room and locked the door behind him. He knew it wouldn’t really do anything to keep Lewis out but it was a small comfort that he needed right now.

He stumbled across the room and crumpled to the ground. Oh god what had he done? Lewis was going to be so angry. The punishment for this was probably going to be far worse than anything Lewis had done to him before. Tears rolled down his face as he lay trembling on the floor.

There was a knocking at the door followed by Lewis’ voice, “Arthur, what happened back there?”

Arthur didn’t reply, hoping that Lewis would just go away. Of course he was never that lucky.

“Ok I’m coming in,” Lewis announced and Arthur’s blood ran cold.

He gave a quiet wine at that but knew there was nothing he could do to stop Lewis. The temperature in the room shifted as the ghost phased through the door and came closer.

“Arthur?” Lewis asked and it almost sounded worried, but that was impossible. Lewis would never show any care for him and Arthur knew that. He knew what was going to happen and he deserved nothing less, but that didn’t mean he wanted it.

A hand came down to rest on Arthur’s shoulder and he flinched. Lewis didn’t seem to notice or more likely didn’t care and the hand moved to pull him upright. Arthur refused to open his eyes though, not wanting to see the deep hatred in his once best friend’s glare.

Another hand came up to rest on his cheek and Arthur swore his heart stopped. Lewis always made sure to never leave a mark where it could be seen, he must have been extremely mad if he no longer cared about that.

He held his breath as he felt Lewis’ thumb drag over his cheek. However, he eventually realized there wasn’t any pain. It almost felt like he was brushing away his tears, but that couldn’t be right.

Without warning he was suddenly pulled closer, right up against the ghost’s chest, and he let out a pathetic whimper. The hand on his shoulder slid to his back and the one on his cheek started running through his hair. It reminded him of how Lewis used to comfort him before the cave, but any hope of it happening again disappeared after Lewis fell from the cliff.

Was this part of his punishment? what Lewis going to give him something he’d been missing so desperately and rip it away from him? The thought broke whatever was left of his heart and he buried his face into the thick material of Lewis’ suit. Even now he still sought out comfort from Lewis.

“Shh, just calm down and tell me what happened,” Lewis said.

Arthur tensed, now he knew what Lewis wanted. He wanted him to admit what he did before he hurt him. New tears rand down his face as he started to completely brake down.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he cried, “I didn’t mean to make you and Vivi upset. I just didn’t know what to say and I panicked. I’m sorry. Pleas, whatever punishment you’re going to do just do it and I’ll apologize to Vivi and do whatever you want.”

“Punishment?” Lewis repeated, the confusion clear. He then took a hold of Arthur’s shoulders and pulled him away so he could look at him.

At feeling himself being pulled away Arthur tensed fearing the worst. His eyes were clenched shut as he waited for the first blow, but it never came.

“Why would I punish you?” Lewis asked.

Arthur blinked, him now being the one confused. Why would Lewis ask him that? Slowly he looked up to Lewis’ face to see if he could read any hint in his expression. Wait face? Not skull? But Lewis was always in his skeleton form when he was angry. What was going on?

Still very confused Arthur answered the question in a voice barely more than a whimper, “Because I ran away. You always punish me when I do something wrong.”

“Arthur what are you...” Lewis trailed off as his eyes landed on Arthur’s right arm.

Arthur looked down in confusion and saw that his sleeve had been pushed up revealing some of the injuries Lewis had given him. Quickly he moved to pull it back down but Lewis grabbed his wrist before he could. Arthur cowered back and let his metal arm go limp as Lewis let go of it and started to roll up the sleeve on his flesh one. He didn’t stop until he reached the shoulder, revealing every scratch, burn, and bruise the ghost had left on him.

A look of horror crossed Lewis’ face as he looked at the arm. If Arthur didn’t know any better he’d say Lewis looked sick.

Lewis just stared at the arm for a long time until there was a knock on the door and Vivi’s voice came through. “Lewis, you’ve both been pretty quiet in there for a long time. Is Arthur ok?” she called.

Lewis didn’t answer and all that could be heard was the lock of the door click open. Vivi quickly ran inside and was about to start ranting when her eyes landed on Arthur’s arm and she froze.

Arthur started to panic at that. Lewis’ number one rule was to never let Vivi know about his injuries. Now that they were in full view he didn’t know what to do.

“Oh my goodness Arthur, what happened?” Vivi screeched.

Both boys winced at the shout.

Arthur was the first one to speak as he once again unsuccessfully tried to pull his sleeve down. This time stopped by Vivi. “It’s nothing,” he tried to reassure, “I..”

“No,” Lewis interrupted, “It’s not nothing. Don’t lie.”

Arthur flinched and went quiet. What did Lewis want? He didn’t want him to lie but he couldn’t tell Vivi that Lewis hurt him, so what was he supposed to say? The only thing he could. He was right, this punishment really was worse than any Lewis had inflicted before. He could handle shouting, burns, bruises, but Vivi’s hate was something he knew he couldn’t, but he had no choice.

“They’re my fault, I... I did a lot of bad things, I deserve them...” he admitted.

“You’re fault? Arthur what are you talking about?” Vivi questioned, now a bit frantic, “You didn’t do this to yourself did you?”

He was about to answer when Lewis cut in, “No, he didn’t... I... I think I did it.”

Both Vivi and Arthur stared at Lewis in shock though for different reasons. Arthur couldn’t understand why Lewis would confess after making sure he’d hide it for so long. Also what did he mean by he thought he did it?

“What do you mean you think it was you?” Vivi asked, carefully.

“I’ve been having small blackouts recently. Like I’ll suddenly be a place I wasn’t before and have no memory of how I got there kinda thing. From what I could tell they only lasted a few minutes and nothing seemed to happen during these times so I just thought it was me zoning out.” Lewis tried to explain, not looking at either of his human companions, “I never thought, if I’d known...” he swallowed before looking up at Arthur, “Arthur I’m so sorry, pleas know that no matter what you do I’d never want to harm you like this.”

Arthur was still unsure. His mind kept reminding him that this could still be a trick. That once he let his guard down Lewis would reveal this was all an act and it’d all come crashing down around him, but at the same time he wanted to believe even just a little so bad. The way Lewis looked at him, he just looked so heartbroken.

Eventually he couldn’t take it anymore. If this was a mistake he didn’t care the possibility that Lewis didn’t hate him was too tempting. He lunged at the ghost wrapping his arms around him and crying, though this time from relief rather than fear.

“Lewis I...” he was so overwhelmed he couldn’t even get the words out, “I forgive you. I... was so scared... I...”

Lewis was a bit surprised when Arthur nearly jumped on him but relaxed when he felt thin arms around him and he hugged the smaller male close. “Shh it’s ok Artie. Things will be ok now,” he soothed.

“That’s right,” Vivi affirmed, joining the hug, “We’re going to make sure Lew won’t hurt anyone during his black outs and we’ll find a way to make them stop.”

Arthur let out the rest of his emotions in a few more sobs before burrowing deeper into the others’ arms. “Thank you, I love both of you so much,” he told them.

“We love you too Arthur,” Vivi replied.

“More than you could ever know,” Lewis added.

For the first time in what felt like forever, Arthur finally felt safe in his friend’s arms again.


End file.
